attending to the novel scenes of a local and characteristic nature, daily passing around us.
“It will readily be understood how materially oar objects, in the official intercourse above alluded to, were likely to be forwarded by a previous personal acquaintance with the parties on both sides of the question. For it often happened that both were to blame; and the only mode of adjustment, therefore, was by compromise, through the instrumentality of a disinterested third party, the success of whose interference would evidently depend very much upon his knowledge of the respective characters of the disputants. It was on this account, chiefly, that I wished to have remained longer in the capital, to have seen more of the different members of Government, as well as to extend my acquaintance amongst the English residents, and the merchants of the country.
“I reached Valparaiso before the French ships made their appearance, and was much struck with the ill-suppressed anxiety with which the inhabitants awaited the event. National pride forbade the expression of any alarm, but a knowledge of the defenceless state of the place filled them with very natural apprehension. Nothing, however, as the event proved, could be more unfounded than such fears; for the Frenchmen, after a short and friendly visit, sailed away again, carrying off the hearts of half the ladies of the port.”
On the 22d Jan. 1821, the Owen Glendower frigate arrived at Valparaiso; and on the 27th, the Conway sailed for Callao, the sea-port of Lima, where she arrived after a passage of nine days.
“At the time of our arrival, the state of Peru, both domestic and political,, was highly interesting, though differing in almost every particular from that of Chili.
“In Chili, national independence had been for several years established, and a free and extensive commerce had, as a natural consequence, speedily sprung up; knowledge was gradually making its way; the moral and political bonds in which the minds of the people had been so long constrained were broken asunder: and the consequences of such freedom were rapidly developing themselves in a thousand shapes. In Peru, on the contrary, the word Independence was now heard for the first time; but as yet only in whispers, under the protection of San Martin’s cannon. In Lima, where such free sentiments were still deemed treasonable, prejudice and error had established their head-quarters; and the obstinate bigotry with which old customs and opinions were adhered to, was rather strengthened than diminished by the apprehension of a total subversion of the whole system. The contrast between the two countries. Chili and Peru, as it met our eyes, was most striking; and if due justice could be done to the description of each, a pleasing inference would be drawn by every Englishman in favour of the popular side of the question.
